Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to pumps systems and engines used to assemble such pump systems, including pump engines having adjustable outputs and interchangeable parts for creating different outputs.
State of the Art
Pumps and pump systems are frequently used to dispense flowable products, including personal and beauty care products. For example, makeup, lotions, creams, and other beauty care products are frequently packaged with a pump to facilitate the dispensing of the product, to control the dose of the product, or both. In addition, some brands will offer a complete line of products to be used together. Often times, the brand-owner desires to maintain a common brand image across the branded product offerings, requiring similar looking pumps and pump systems having different outputs. While pumps and pump systems having the same aesthetics but different dosing capabilities may be made, such pump systems often require completely different parts or pump engines associated with the aesthetics to produce different dosage capabilities. Thus, to have a family of similar looking pump systems with different dosage capabilities, it is often necessary to manufacture several different pump systems or pump engines, each of which have multiple parts. In order to make all of the parts, multiple tools are required to produce the parts for each size—or dosage—of pump system. The increased capital for such duplicative parts can be costly.
To reduce costs, some manufactures may provide a standard closure and pump head and then attach different pump engines thereto, wherein each of the pump engines provides a different output. In this manner, a common aesthetic look may be provided while offering different outputs for the various branded products. Typically, each of the pump engines may include an accumulator, a spring, and a piston system consisting of a piston stem and a piston seal. For different engines, each of the parts is a different size. Thus, for a first output, the accumulator, piston stem, and piston seal will have a first size and for a second output they will have a second, different size. Tools or molds for each size of component are used to manufacture the components and often times different assembly lines are required for the different engine sizes. The requirement for multiple tools and separate assembly lines increases the costs associated with making each pump.
Furthermore, in many cases brand owners are looking for smaller runs of a pump system for their niche products or for products that do not have the market share of some of their larger products. When multiple sizes are required with smaller runs for products having smaller market share, the relative costs to produce the smaller runs increases due to labor costs, changeovers in manufacturing, and other factors.
As a result of the costs associated with offering pump systems with variable output options, it may be difficult and prohibitively expensive to manufacture pump systems that may be tailored for differing outputs. Thus, a more cost-effective solution to providing pump systems and pump engines with different outputs is desirable.